Austin, Indiana: Named for Texas, Tested by a Crisis

Scott County's Austin was platted in eighteen fifty-three and named after Austin, Texas, which itself honored Stephen F. Austin, the Father of Texas. The name traveled a long way.

A century and a half later, Austin became known for a very different reason. In twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen, the town of roughly four thousand people became ground zero for the largest drug-fueled HIV outbreak to hit rural America in recent history, driven by the intravenous use of a prescription opioid called Opana. Scores of residents tested positive in a matter of months.

Public health officials pointed to poverty and unemployment as factors that allowed the outbreak to spread. Austin's crisis sparked national debate over needle exchange programs and rural opioid addiction.